Rump May Make Russia Great Again

By Manifesto Joe

Each day seems to bring new confusion. I've never been a fan of the CIA. As an organization, it doesn't appear to understand the simple concept of "blowback," instead embracing myopic "U.S. interests" that see ahead as far as about a couple of days rather than a couple of decades. The 1953 overthrow of a democratic government in Iran is an example. Wow, and now so many folks there hate us? Who could imagine?

But to have a "president-elect" pick a fight with them before even taking office? Not smart.

Resident-elect Donald J. Rump took time from his busy schedule of appointing anti-worker zillionaires, rabid generalissimos and misogynistic kooks to his Cabinet and inner circle to denounce the CIA finding that Russian computer hackers interfered in our presidential election. His reasoning? This is the same entity that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. (That's bullshit -- it was VP Cheney and the neocons who stubbornly forwarded that falsehood.)

This is not a stupid man, but he appears to be disturbed, and he is a dangerous demagogue. His appointments show that he meant absolutely none of the faux populism that he spouted during the campaign. He did not really want the hard work that comes with the presidency -- he'll delegate that to perhaps even more dangerous associates.

The Russian interference with our election was known before Nov. 8, and the electors who are tasked with the smelly job of naming Rump as our next "president" should be briefed on all that the CIA knows about this skullduggery.

Another of Rump's arguments: If "our side" had alleged any of this, it would have been characterized as a "conspiracy theory." But again, evidence of this was known before the election, and mainstream Republicans did nothing. All they cared about was winning.

At best, the country may benefit from the fact that Rump loves to "fight" more than he loves to get things done, so little damage will be done. At worst, he will do grievous damage to the American working class he suckered so badly during the campaign, and he will destroy the Republican Party. The potential exists for things to go either way.

One clear thing has emerged. There are Republicans so dogmatic that they would vote for anybody who got their presidential nomination. I'm not talking about Charles Manson, I mean somebody who would have a serious chance of becoming that party's nominee. Among Democrats, there are voters who would have chosen a given Republican of the time against, say, George Wallace. Wallace, who won some key Democratic primaries in 1972, had a genuine chance. As bad as Richard Nixon could be, I likely would have preferred him to Wallace.

An example of how badly Rump swindled U.S. voters is the issue of NAFTA. That trade agreement, you may recall, split the Democratic Party into two factions in 1993. Rump talked about bad trade agreements on the campaign trail while traditional "free trade" Republicans winked at each other. They knew he was just telling the rubes that to get their votes. They, the GOP establishment, were among the biggest supporters of NAFTA and other such agreements.

In any case, Rump is not even in office yet, and still he's off to a very rocky start. His relationship with Russia's leadership seems to be more important to him than his relationship with those in charge of U.S. intelligence. He doesn't even seem to want an investigation of election tampering to go forward.

Fasten your seat belts -- it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.